‘Just here for my exit interview’: Swans players return to the club for first time since suspension

Sydney Swans players Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice and James Jordon have returned to the club’s Moore Park headquarters for the first time since they were suspended for breaching club standards during a late-night incident in Melbourne.

Amid glares from onlookers in the busy Entertainment Quarter precinct, the “Pullman Five″⁣ arrived at the Royal Hall of Industries on Wednesday afternoon for their routine end-of-season interviews.

But there was nothing routine about their entrance, as people lining up for a concert at the adjacent Hordern Pavilion craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the players who have been at the centre of one of the AFL’s biggest scandals in recent memory.

The players apologised to all members of the men’s and women’s squads.

For all bar Warner – the only player to have been photographed since the incident at the Pullman Hotel in Melbourne in the early hours of August 17 – it was the first public sightings of them in weeks.

Other players trickled into the club throughout Wednesday afternoon, while a large contingent of staff were seen walking down the stairs of their building for what was presumed to be an all-club meeting in the minutes ahead of their arrival.

Just after 5pm, the five players arrived in two cars, with Warner and Bice together in one, and Heeney, Blakey and Jordon in the other – but they had little to say to the awaiting media pack, which had been camped outside the club since the morning.

“I’m just here for my exit interview,” Warner told a large press pack.

“I’m looking forward to addressing the playing group,” said Heeney, who also offered concern to a cameraman who fell over a bollard as the players walked towards the entrance.

The five players were suspended by the Swans last month for the rest of the AFL season, sidelining them for their final home-and-away match against North Melbourne, their stirring qualifying final win over reigning premiers Brisbane Lions and their heartbreaking preliminary final defeat to Fremantle on Friday night.

The Swans’ club-imposed suspensions were separate from a Victoria Police investigation into allegations of sexual assault at the Pullman. No charges have been laid, while Bice is no longer considered a person of interest by police.

Exit meetings are end-of-season reviews, typically held between coaching staff and individual players.

“It’s a natural thing the players will come in,” Swans chief executive Matthew Pavlich said on Wednesday morning.

“We have our exit meetings and the players will come in. The players at some point will have a chat to the broader group and the club.

“I want them to be themselves and I want them to come and do what they normally do – their player exit meetings.”

AFL chief operating officer Tom Harley said the league was not yet involved in how the Swans handled the five players.

“Obviously, the Swans were knocked out for the preliminary final on Friday night, and they have their exit [meetings] this week. I’m not across the specific details of the conversations that they’re having,” he said.

“It’s still clearly a legal matter, and whilst it’s in the hands of the police, it remains there. And so, how that plays out up in Sydney will play out, and from an AFL point of view, we’re not involved in that.”

Harley said the Swans would have the final say on when the players returned to pre-season training, should they still be at the club after the trade period.

“The legal process will play out late October, and there’s, obviously, a lot that has to happen between now and then. But that’s really a question for the Swans,” he said.

An industry source told this masthead that Blakey would not request a trade until he and his management had more clarity about the ongoing police investigation, but he was considering a fresh start at a new club.

Another source said that Warner had not contemplated a trade. He will be a restricted free agent at the end of the 2027 season.

The suspended players were also banned from attending the Brownlow count – even though they were eligible to win the award. Heeney collected 26 votes on Monday night, with Collingwood favourite Nick Daicos winning the prestigious medal by a landslide with a record 47 votes.

Warner, Blakey and Bice also received votes throughout the night.

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